Friday, July 18, 2008

Arty-Farty Friday: Michael Parkes & Venus

Here's an interesting artist who has, so far, escaped my blog: Michael Parkes.

I'd never heard of this fine artist until we visited the home of my husband's younger daughter in Austin, Texas last year. She has a number of large Parkes prints in her apartment. Coincidentally, her birthday is the day before my own in late January, different year of course. I discovered that she has a liking for the magical, surreal yet realistic/representative style, which I share. Early Aquarians of similar taste!

In Michael Parkes' style I see echoes of Magritte, Dali, Maxfield Parrish and the English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - all great favourites of mine - yet he brings something else, something quite unique into the mix.

It's not possible to look into Michael Parkes' astrology. His birth date, other than "1944", doesn't appear anywhere on-line. I suspect that he has deliberately kept his birthday secret. He is of the hippie generation, no doubt aware of astrology and unwilling to share his own. He and his wife have travelled widely in the East, and Europe. They lived in India for a time, and now in Spain.

From Wikipedia:

"He studied the esoteric doctrines of the East and the West, and his imagery is drawn from a range of traditions including the cabalistic and the tantric, but embodied in forms from his own imagination which are immediately accessible. Here strange beasts encounter mysterious winged women, good and evil fight out their immemorial conflict, and in this weightless environment worlds are unmade and remade nearer to the heart's desire."

I found a YouTube presentation featuring an interview with Michael Parkes who discusses a new painting of Venus, and talks about cosmic symbolism - I found this fascinating. I doubt I shall fall foul of copyright if I embed the video, as he took part in it himself, and the embedding is freely available. So:



There's another video, "Homage to Michael Parkes" at YouTube, featuring many of his paintings.

Elsewhere there's information and illustration of Parkes' work HERE and HERE , or via Google Image. I'm conscious of copyright laws now, after my last week's post on the topic. I shall restrict myself to two pictures, to better illustrate the style of this artist. If the copyright police come to get me - well, - it's been fun, y'all!

THE SUMMIT


TUESDAY'S CHILD


(Small illustration, top, is a Michael Parkes' gallery, from one of the above links.)

4 comments:

  1. Oh luscious, luscious art, T. I was not aware of him at all and what a gift you bring me!
    Can't see the YT, oh I'll be glad when and IF (promised) we get high speed out here.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's surprising, isn't it, WWW that his name isn't better known among folk like thee and me? He's obviously known to those moving in certain circles, but has just not become a household name - yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. His birthday is 10-12-44. Found on facebook

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous ~~~ Many thanks! I'll try to work that in to a future post, with a natal chart.

    I'll take it that it's October 12 not 10 December.....being English I tend to get confused because in the UK they write day/month/year.

    Sun in libra! Very appropriate - Libra ruled by Venus!

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete